‘We can now confirm the children were on those trains’: Documents revealing how Jewish children fled the Nazis found by Nottingham experts

Surviving Kindertransportee Hanna Zack Miley, 92, who now lives Arizona in the USA, was contacted after being named in the new documents found by Nottingham researchers (Image: NTU)
By George Palmer-Soady
Hundreds of documents detailing the personal stories of children who escaped the Nazis before the Second World War have been unearthed by Nottingham experts.
The remarkable finds relate to the Kindertransport programme – one of the largest organised rescue operations in history.
Between 1938 and 1940, thousands of Jewish children were transported to safety from parts of Nazi-controlled Europe ahead of the outbreak of war.
Many Jewish families already felt unsafe in the years before the conflict, due to a string of discriminatory laws implemented by the Nazi party in Germany that saw many people being murdered. The UK agreed to take thousands of Jewish children under 17 into temporary refuge.
Many families were separated and children were told there was a chance they would never see their parents again as they crossed the border into Holland after leaving Germany and other areas controlled by the Nazis.
Records collected by officials as the children caught trains to the UK were thought to have since been lost or thrown away, leaving many of the rescued with little information about how they reached safety.
A researcher from Nottingham Trent University has now found details of the journey. Dr Amy Williams discovered the documents in the archives at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Israel, while working on her second book.
The records are copies of original files held in Holland and list the names of almost all of the 9,000 children who fled to the UK and Holland on the Kindertransport.
“I essentially found them the second week I was there,” Dr Williams told Notts TV.

“I came across the lists and wasn’t looking for them, but they ended up on my desk. The copies are great because they are accessible to researchers and families because they are digitised.
“From those we can determine so much information that wasn’t known before. They’ve been able to put the ‘transport’ back into Kindertransport.
“We can give confirmation to the survivors and their families that these children were on these trains. Many families aren’t really aware if they were on a Kindertransport or not, so we can essentially reconstruct it because of this.”
Dr Williams says the documents include details of the children’s names, home addresses, dates of birth, parents’ names, chaperones’ names, Kindertransport numbers and departure dates.
She says she knew around 150 families involved in the Kindertransport from previous research before discovering the documents but has since been put in touch with some of the survivors listed.
“There’s still a lot of myths that we’re able to dispel because of these lists, and it shows you the desperation of people wanting to go out,” Dr Williams added.

“This was a really difficult decision for families to make – often it was mum or grandma making the decision by themselves because Dad or Grandad were in concentration camps.
“A lot of the older boys had been in concentration camps before the Kindertransport. It wasn’t just rescue from the holocaust, but rescue from all the events that were happening prior.
“It enables us 86 years on to really understand the breadth of bravery and courage and foresight the parents had. It gives us an opportunity to really thank and acknowledge what they did to save their children”.
After the UK Home Office ceased the Kindertransport on 30 August 1939 and stopped taking in children, many of the original documents were disregarded or lost, Dr Williams says.
This is with the exception of records created by the Dutch Jewish Children Committee charity, which was designed to ensure the safety of passage for children travelling from Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Austria, and even Italy.
Those documents are the ones now being digitised in Israel by Dr Williams, who is working with Nottingham Trent University Emeritus Professor Bill Niven to piece together the facts and make the lists available to the public.

Surviving Kindertransportee Hanna Zack Miley, 92, who now lives in Arizona in the USA, was put in touch with Dr Williams via Instagram.
She had previously written a book on her experiences as a child and was one of many names listed on the documents.
“I am still feeling the reverberations of seeing my details on the Kindertransport list,” she said.
“Reclaiming the past is an ongoing journey for me. My first reaction was a feeling of authentication – this actually did happen, I was really there.
“I’m embracing more deeply both the losses and the deliverance, the saving of my life. I am comforted by a fresh sense of belonging to the kinder and our shared history.
“I think Dr Williams has gifted us with a sense of dignity, in the honouring of our story. Already the discovery of the lists has led to a Zoom meeting with two of Doris Aronowitz’ sons – her name was next to mine on the list. I think it’s only the beginning.”
It is hoped that all the documents will be made available to the public through organisations such as the Association of Jewish Refugees and World Jewish Relief so that survivors and their families can learn about their past.

Dr Williams says that, by being provided with a name, birthday, location of birth, and a general idea of the date of the journey, she may be able to track family details of the Kindertransport and supply families with answers after 80 years.
Before and during the war, the Nazis murdered around 13 million people including Jews, prisoners of war, political opponents, those with disabilities, gay and bisexual people, and other minority ethnic or social groups.
Around 1.5 million of those murdered were children.
Many were killed in an organised network of prison death camps, or concentration camps, where the regime carried out the mass extermination and enslavement of people the Nazis saw as ethnically undesirable or politically dangerous.